David Coote: Sacked referee comes out as gay and explains cocaine abuse

Former Premier League referee David Coote has revealed that struggles with his sexuality and the "relentlessness" of the modern football calendar led him to use drugs.

Coote was sacked in December after an independent investigation into his actions following the release of a video which showed him calling former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp "a German c***".

The official from Nottingham opened up on his internal strife in an interview with The Sun. "I felt a deep sense of shame during my teenage years in particular," Coote revealed. "I didn't come out to my parents until I was 21. I didn't come out to my friends until I was 25.

"My sexuality isn't the only reason that led me to be in that position. But I'm not telling an authentic story if I don't say that I'm gay, and that I've had real struggles dealing with hiding that.

"I hid my emotions as a young ref and I hid my sexuality as well - a good quality as a referee but a terrible quality as a human being. And that's led me to a whole course of behaviours."

Coote added: "I've had issues around my self-esteem - and that relates to my sexuality. I'm gay and I’ve struggled with feeling proud of being 'me' over a long period of time.

"I have received deeply unpleasant abuse during my career as a ref and to add my sexuality to that would have been really difficult. There's a lot to be done throughout football and more widely in society with regard to discrimination.

"I didn't want to be that person that was putting their head above the parapet to be shot at, given the abuse we all get as a referee in any event."

A photograph of Coote snorting a line of white powder was also published by The Sun, who accused him of holding "drugs parties" during Euro 2024. The former official insisted that he wasn't "reliant" on cocaine but admitted: "It was one of the escape routes I had. Just getting away from the stresses, the relentlessness of the job. It fills me with a huge sense of shame to say that I took that route."

"In 2023 I lost my mum very suddenly," Coote outlined. "At the same time my uncle was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. After COVID and the introduction of VAR, six officials were suddenly needed for each game.

"I was selected by Fifa for the Under-17 World Cup in Indonesia, as well as the Euros and Olympics last year. It meant that over the course of the 2023-24 season I was involved in more than 90 games - often back to back. At the end of last season I went straight into the Euros and that was incredibly pressurised. I had another tournament coming up immediately - heading to Paris for the Olympics."

"I don't recognise myself in the cocaine video," Coote added, referring to the footage of his criticism of Klopp. "I can't resonate with how I felt then, but that was me. I was struggling with the schedule and there was no opportunity to stop. And so I found myself in that position - escaping.

"I put on this hard exterior. Football became a place where I could go and referee and be engrossed in the game. But then I'd come home and it would be more difficult because I'm living a double sense of being.

"To other people who are in my situation, I'd say seek help and talk to somebody because if you bottle it up like I have done it has to come out in some way."

Coote will now "spend some quality time with family and friends, and take time to make sure I'm in the best place to move forwards".

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